"Religious leaders were among those attending a special White House meeting this week on mental illness. President Obama hosted the group saying he wanted a more robust national discussion about mental health. He said mental illness left untreated could lead to tragedies like the Newtown school shooting. The president called on houses of worship and other religious institutions to help people recognize mental health problems and get the treatment they need."
I wonder to what extent can religious leaders accurately identify those with a "mental illness". I can see some religious organizations want to identify homosexuality or atheism as a mental illness. While this is purely speculative in what they could or could not do, it seems ironic to ask religious leaders to help with mental illness. Some religious traditions talk about the power of God, which have prompted some to pray for God to cure a loved one instead of seeking medical help. It is widely known that spirituality and religion has been acknowledged to help with mental health but religion as a social force can also increase the domain of what the marginal is; an expanding inclusion to the "other". I am for the increased awareness of religious leaders on mental health issues and have no qualm against religious organizations seeking to help with therapeutic administration of treatment methods to patients. But it should stop there. Religious leaders are not qualified to make the judgments of a psychologist or a psychiatrist - I mean shit, even they have problems in how to categorize and qualify. Even still, there are dangers when a religious leader of credibility and merit in a society recommends somebody to a mental health facility. It is not uncommon for such institutions to take patients on the recommendation of a respected social figure of the community and place them in their "care". I don't recall the name of the study, but there were a few researchers who admitted themselves to a mental health instution and acted as they would under normal circumstances and the only persons who could identify them as not having a mental health concern were the other patients. The nurses and the doctors were not able to recognize that there was nothing particularly "wrong" with them in their mental health (might have to go look up the study but it exists).
Watch Churches and the Mentally Ill on PBS. See more from Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly.
This video seems like a religious twist on Foucault (oddly he keeps coming back). Instead of sending the marginalized to a mental health facility, send 'em to church....
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